Thousands protest against Putin

MOSCOW - Thousands protested on Saturday against Vladimir Putin’s domination of Russia, but the event struggled to live up to the success of past mass rallies after his crushing election victory. The protest, which ended with a handful of arrests, was a fraction of the size of previous rallies in Moscow, in a sign the opposition is finding it hard to maintain momentum after Putin won a third Kremlin term on March 4. Moscow city hall had approved a demonstration of up to 50,000 people on the New Arbat street in the city centre, but police put the number attending at 10,000.